


Perroquet

by Glamourcat



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-21
Updated: 2015-07-21
Packaged: 2018-04-10 10:33:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4388480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glamourcat/pseuds/Glamourcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A parrot finds a new home after a traumatic experience.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perroquet

Title: Perroquet  
Author: J.R. Cooper  
Date Completed: 7/20/09  
Part: 1 or 1  
Warnings: None, rated G  
Disclaimer: All characters in this work are my own original creation and may not be used without my express permission.  
Summary: A parrot goes through a harrowing rescue.  
Distribution: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/jrcsmin  
Notes: I originally wrote this for the DeviantArt Writer’s Guild contest of creating a short story 5000 words or less based on the theme: ‘Grey-eyed, tall, and comes from another place." I decided to play with the concept of “tall” – I thought tall in comparison to what? In this case, Perroquet’s height compared to the other birds around him. For those of you who don’t know, Perroquet is French for the word parrot.

How on earth he managed to survive the trip, Perroquet would never know. There were times, with his beak taped shut, his wings tied to his side, no food and no water for what seemed like an eternity, that he thought for certain that this was the end of any hope for life. 

Indeed, the customs officer who discovered this very illegal shipment of African Grey Parrots wondered the same thing. These birds had been wild caught, and then smuggled into the U.S.A. through a port in Florida. Maxine was a hard working woman, often over-wrought with the things expected of her and the lack of hours needed to complete her tasks. Finding the crate with the illegally shipped birds had almost been too much heart break for her to bear. Out of almost twenty birds, only one lone male had survived the trip. Perroquet, by some miracle, had managed not to suffocate or die of starvation.   
Despite the fact that Perroquet was in fact, evidence, Maxine was somehow able to wheedle her boss into letting her take him home. Maxine’s apartment was too small for dogs, and her neighbors had some kind of vendetta against people who owned cats, so she had several small green cheeked conures. Bandit, Moxy and Tallulah were suitably impressed with their new astoundingly large roommate. As soon as Maxine had feed and watered the new arrival, checking him for any other injures that may not have been obvious to the naked eye, she left to head back to work and find a vet experienced with African Greys.

Bandit, Moxy and Tallulah were a little taken aback by this giant. His colors were so dull, and he seemed to have no interest in opening his eyes, or moving around. He huddled in his misery, sitting on the perch on top of Moxy’s cage. Maxine had been forced to leave him there, as she didn’t have a cage big enough to fit him. Moxy, being aptly named, was the first to try and rouse him from his stupor. 

“Hey. Hey You. Hey there. Hey.” She beak climbed up to the top of her cage, hanging upside down by one foot, extending a toe between the bars, poking Perroquet. 

“Moxy, leave him be.” Tallulah, a kinder soul, admonished her friend. “He’s in bad shape. Let him sleep.”

“He’s not asleep. He’s faking.” Moxy asserted, and started poking him again. 

The poking finally roused Perroquet enough that he shifted sideways on the perch, to be out of her reach.

“See! I told you.” Moxy chortled. “Hey, big grey! What’s your story?”

“Perroquet.” The tall stranger finally spoke, his eyes still closed, his body still hunkered down.

“What was that?” Bandit asked, flying to the side of his cage closest to Moxy’s. He turned his head sideways and peered at Perroquet with one eye.

“My name is Perroquet.” The African Grey said softly, opening one eye to stare back at the little conure. 

“Hey, you got grey eyes.” Bandit exclaimed, “I thought you big guys were supposed to have yellow eyes. I lived next to one of you in the pet store before Mom bought me, and she had yellow eyes.”

“I didn’t know my eyes had a color. Not a lot of ways to look at yourself in the jungle.” Perroquet answered, closing his eyes and huddling down again.

“Jungle?” Moxy asked, sticking her beak through the bars. “You’re from the jungle? Mom didn’t buy you?”

“Buy me?” Perroquet repeated, confused. “She found me in a crate with the rest of my flock. We were captured. The rest of them died.”

“You’re wild caught?” Tallulah gasped in horror. “I thought the humans had stopped doing that. How awful. I’m so sorry Perroquet.”

“So am I.” Perroquet replied.

“If you’re wild caught,” Bandit wondered, “Then how come you have a name? I thought the humans had to name you.”

“We lived on the edge of the jungle, near a village. Lots of tourists. One of them pointed to my mother and called out ‘Perroquet.’” The grey explained.

“She liked the word so much she named me that. I miss my mother. I miss the rest of my flock. I’m never going to go home, am I?”

“Aw, Perroquet,” Tallulah’s heart went out to the taller bird. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think so. I’ve never heard of a wild caught bird being sent home.”

“But it’s okay. Our Mom found you,” Bandit added brightly, trying to cheer him up. “Mom’s real good about treats, and letting us out of the cages so we can fly, and she plays with us, and talks to us – we can even talk back to her, and she understands us…sort of. Our voices aren’t that clear to her.”

“Yea, Perroquet.” Moxy jumped in, shifting her upside-down body so she was in range to poke him again. “We’ll be your flock from now on. This home isn’t bad. It’s just different.”

Perroquet opened his eyes and fluffed the feathers on his neck, really looking around him for the first time. The apartment seems so small compared to the open spaces he was used to. The colors so muted. It was clean though, and smelled good. The food the woman had left smelled good too. The water was clean and sweet smelling. He shifted stretching his back and flexing his wings to their full span. He still had room to move.

Stepping down off the perch, he stuck his beak in-between the bars of Moxy’s cage and poked her back before walking over to the food dish to pull an almond out.

“Hey!” Moxy cried. “No fair! He poked me.”

“You poked him, but he can’t poke you?” Bandit laughed, “Now who’s not being fair?”

Moxy and Bandit started to argue, as Tallulah tried to intervene. Perroquet sat at the food dish, cracking the almond shell open with his beak, eyes half closed.   
“Well,” he thought to himself. “They certainly sound like my old flock.”


End file.
